Tieton River Nature Trail — Saturday, Apr. 16, 2022

Ethan, Jonah, & I took a walk on the Tieton River Nature Trail on this cool, cloudy day.  We started at the suspension bridge and walked the trail west until it intersected the irrigation canal.  It was snowing lightly when we started, but it stopped by the time we reached the big meadow.  We started encountering quite a few patches of fresh snow on the trail beyond the upper bridge, but it was soft and did not pose a problem.  We had lunch at what's becomming our usual spot with views up and down the Tieton River Canyon.  It was cool, but not windy and we were comfortable, so we stayed our usual hour or so before heading back the way we had come.  There was quite a variety of wildflowers in bloom, though nothing in profusion except for some nice patches of buttercups, gold star, and butterfly bearing desert parsley.  There was also lots of balsamroot in bud.  In a couple of weeks there could be lots of flowers in bloom here.  The cottonwoods were starting to leaf out and were a beautiful lime green, but the aspens were barely starting and the oaks hadn't started at all.  We didn't see any wildlife except for some birds, but did see lots of tracks in the fresh snow, mostly coyote, deer, and squirrel.  We saw only 4 other hikers.